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Longbow Class
The Longbow-class patrol cruiser was a class of ship that was used in the Union of Allied Planets Navy. The Union of Allied Planets often deployed Longbow cruisers when it had to maintain a military presence but did not want to dedicate a massive Tohoku Class cruiser. Modified ships of this class were known to be used as Pirate Ships. Overview Displacing 640,000 tons, the Longbow was more than enough to overwhelm the average pirate squadron or planetary militia. The Longbow was still deceptively well armed, however, and carried a pair of heavy cannons, a dozen point-defense guns, 360 missiles and over a thousand jammer/decoys jammed into its narrow hull. This was supported by more than fifty small craft and room for over 3000 troops, making the it a very flexible vessel well suited for space superiority, interdiction, piracy suppression, and ground assault missions. Even with this impressive firepower, Longbows were rarely deployed alone and were usually grouped with smaller support vessels. This ship also appealed to the civilian market, typically as a high-capacity freighter due to its robust design and long range. Stripped of weapons and magazine space, it could carry an impressive amount of cargo. Since the ship could not land, some of the hangar's spaces were retained for cargo shuttles and Wren Class light transport. The civilian ship could be distinguished from the military cruiser by the: bow-mounted fins; the curved, drooping bow extension; and the lack of the large dorsal weapon mount. Several Longbows took part in the Universe battle on both sides. The Alliance fleet deployed a significant number of them, while the Reaver fleet possessed several civilian versions, presumably captured vessels modified into combat platforms. The design of the Longbow has a striking similarity (and is likely based on) one of the more numerous classes of colony ship that made up the original Earth fleet. Details Stepping down out of the millions of tons, the next largest thing out there is the Longbow-class Patrol Cruiser, listed on pg. 85 of Six-Shooters & Spaceships at 640,000 tons and carrying a complement of 36 Warhammer Interceptor, 12 Foxbat-class Fighter/Bomber, and 8 standard shuttles. Definitely not something you want to tangle with or run from, and it's heavily armed with a pair of 200 pound guns on the top, 208 long-range 100 pound missiles, and 160 medium-range 200 pound missiles. This thing could pretty much blow away a small fleet, and is for "When the Alliance wishes to maintain a serious presence in an area without dedicating a full-blown Tohoku-class cruiser". Vessels *[[I.A.V. Stormfront|I.A.V. Stormfront]] (''Firefly - Big Damn Hero'') **Crew of note: Aubrey Bernard Trivia *A longbow is a bow that was made famous by the use of the English longbow. Like the cruiser, they were used en masse for maximum effectiveness. Behind the scenes The Longbow-class Patrol Cruiser first appeared in the ''Serenity'' film and was later given an entry in the Serenity Role Playing Game supplement, Six-Shooters & Spaceships. Lynn Blackson, the author of Six Shooters & Spaceships released an image of the ship on the fan-based RPG site cortexsystemrpg.org in 2007. However, the model used for the image was created by Blackson based on stills from the film Serenity, meaning that although the image gives a good impression of the ship, it is not fully accurate. A "de-militarized" model of the Longbow seems to have been used for one of the more numerous classes of colony ship in the scenes depicting the original Fleet leaving Earth. The same (although "reaverized") model is seen as a part of the Reaver fleet during the Universe battle. An Image is included in the Gallery. Appearances *''Serenity'' *''Firefly - Big Damn Hero'' Sources *''Six-Shooters & Spaceships'' *''Serenity RPG: Game Master's Screen'' Images Category:Longbow class